


The Dragon and the Girl

by orphan_account



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Spook Me Ficathon 2013
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-26
Updated: 2013-10-26
Packaged: 2017-12-30 13:06:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1018991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He came suddenly in a blur of smoke and flames.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dragon and the Girl

He came suddenly in a blur of smoke and flames. In less than a minute he was at the tower on the far left of the castle. He perched close to it with a growl and waited. When a small hand stuck their hand through the window and he advanced.

 

The hand was soon joined by another and then a head of red curls. It was a child of barely four or five and she gazed at the large, winged creature with clear fear in her eyes. A whimper escaped her when a clawed hand reached for her. She turned around and tried to run but one of the claws reached inside the tower window. It hooked on the back of her dress and then started to lift her out.

 

She wanted to scream and fight but the long way down had her hanging there limply and crying. When the creature lifted her up higher, she thought she was going to fall but he simply deposited her onto his back. He growled softly and all she could do was cry out and clutch at him tightly before he took off into the night.

 

There was very little else she could recall of her life before that day. The memory of being taken from her home and the mountain home where this creature resided was all that she remembered clearly. When she got to his mountain home she had been full of fear. She’d been so scared and hid in a small crevice the first day until his low, garbled voice reached out to her.

 

_“You will not survive like that for long, little one. Come out and eat something.”_

“I want to go home!”

 

_“You are mine now, little one. There is no reason to be concerned about that place anymore.”_

“Where is my papa?”

 

_“I am your papa.”_

 

In time she learned that her kingdom had been spared in exchange for her life. The anger and bitterness towards her family made her block out memories before her capture. It was as if the life she had before she had been taken from that tower had never existed. She put it behind her and kept it in a locked box deep inside her mind where it would never be opened again.

 

When she grew older she would ask him why he agreed to take her in exchange for her kingdom and the response would always be the same. He would repeat that he was her papa and that she was his. She would try to word the question differently and would sometimes beg but no matter how many times she asked, he just refused to answer. In time she eventually just stopped asking.

 

~*~

 

The years passed and she grew taller and filled out in different areas but time had become lost on her.  She even lost count of how long she had been there because the hours just seemed to blend together. The older she become the more restless she got. Boredom was a common even when she tried to pass the time by reading. It was her favorite past time but as she approached young womanhood she had read all the books in the large cave. Sometimes it was a struggle just to find a way to pass the day but there was a way to change that. All she had to do was talk to the dragon that, in time, she had come to view as a father figure.

 

“I’ve read all these books three times over. When are you going to get me some more?” she complained.

 

She was sitting beside her father reading one of the many books littering the cave. This one in particular she’d read four times.

 

The dragon looked at the human girl and then snorted in what sounded like amusement. _“Books aren’t easy to come by, little one. It’s not as if I can simply walk into one of those human buildings where you house all those contraptions you love to read so much.”_

“Papa, you said you would always try to make me happy and having more to read would make me happy.”

 

_“I shall see.”_

She huffed and reached for one of the books she had read at least twice which was a rarity for her. Her eyes scanned over the title and then the next page. It was there she noticed something she hadn’t seen before. The book had been published in her kingdom which caused a question to form in her mind. How had she missed this for all these years?

 

“This was published in my kingdom,” the young woman said absentmindedly but then she frowned.  The question she hadn’t asked for a long time was begging to be asked and she couldn’t stop it. “Why did you take me?”

 

_“I told you the king gave you to me little one.”_

“I know that papa but what was the reason? You’ve always told me the maiden and the dragon tales were myths.”

 

_“They are myths.”_

“Then why did he let you take me, papa?”

 

 _“Kingdoms have always offered me gold in exchange for leaving them in peace,”_ he growled softly as he gestured to his large bed of gold. _“The king couldn’t bear to part with his gold and told me his daughter would be a suitable replacement.”_

He had never told her the grim details before and it made her stomach clench in anger. “He gave up me in exchange for his gold?”

 

“ _Yes.”_

_“_ Why did you take me though?”

 

_“Many of my kind are long gone and the few that are left prefer to keep to themselves.”_

 

“In other words you were lonely, papa.”

 

The dragon chuckled. “ _It seem would seem so little one.”_

 

“You took me because of loneliness but he gave me away because of fear and greed,” she muttered to herself.

 

She got to her feet and placed her hand on the dragon’s large snout. “Will you get me some more books, papa?”

 

_“Tomorrow little one, I promise.”_

 

“Thank you, papa,” she whispered as she caressed his snout with obvious affection.

 

It seemed as if this were meant to be.


End file.
